Page 18 - q3 2020

September is Realtor Saftey Month
Our Top 5 Realtor®Saftey Tips for 2020
Safety is something every good Realtor® should have on their mind. I’d advise for everyone to read all 56 tips off NAR’s website but for today - I’d like to handpick 5 tips that are appropriate for the year 2020 and those I feel are more relevant than ever considering the recent climate.
Tip #3
Don’t be too public
I think we all know someone guilty of this. Social media has made it easier than ever to share with your friends and fam- ily all the exciting and fun things that are going on in your life. However this invites some unwanted attention too many peoples lives. Every time you post something online you are providing information that can help anyone track where you are. Every picture you take has a Geocode that can be reversed searched and every post to make on social media has a hidden address attached to it. So be careful with what you post.
I’ve worked with a handful of agents who have been stalked online or have had unwanted visitors appearing at their address because of their profession. As a licensed agent in the state of Florida a lot of your information is public. To avoid unwanted attention please keep your account updated and check what information is provided to the public. Please report and suspi- cious activities!
Tip #5
Open house safety
Open house safety has changed a lot in the year 2020 – let’s hope that soon days of sanitizing every parcel and requiring PPE will be behind us. However, consider that after all this you are constantly meeting with strangers and open houses invite difrent types of dangers.
If you are immune compromised always consider that your guests might not only present physical dangerous but also on a viral or bacterial level. Always let someone know when you’re hosting an open house and if you can always bring a friend or coworker with you. Never assume that everyone’s left the house before you locked up for the day.
Tip #24
Your Email is Public
Did you know that every email you write is public? I bet now you will... Be sure that every time you write an email you aren’t adding any personal information or financial information.
Tip #54
People are not who they say they are
Remember when I said don’t be too public? You could learn a lot about someone on their social media’s or by just doing a quick Google search online. However on the other hand you can choose what you’d like people to know.
Let me introduce you to a new term many of you haven’t heard of. Some people can curate their accounts as a “sock puppet” account. These accounts are used to portray a different per- son then who they actually are and some people go as far as to create multiple sock puppet accounts in order to throw you off when you do a background check of your client. This is some- thing that has been appearing more and more as time goes on but keep that in mind that social media’s don’t tell the full story of your client.
More importantly, as is been traditional for a few decades scam- ming is a huge issue in our industry. And as mentioned before do not distribute any personal or financial information over email or even over the phone if you have the choice.
Tip #35
Don’t dial and drive!
Last but not least, although this pertains to general safety– please stay off your phone when you’re driving. Invest into Bluetooth and hands-free options because real estate agent’s spend a lot of time driving. Download text to speech Apps or services that will read Messages out loud. Use those hand free options when answering calls.
If you come across a question that needs you to look through papers or search up, either pull over or wait into you get to your destinations to answer them, it’s not that urgent. Texting and driving is illegal in the state of Florida and remember that whenever you’re driving your largest risking your own lives you’re risking the lives of those around you.
Remember that these tips and more are always on NAR’s website (WWW.Nar.Realtor). They get updated all the time and altered constantly to match our ever-changing industry. Have any safety tips you think should be added? Reach out to me! My email is: Kevin@BonitaEsteroRealtors.com